Perfection
by Musamura
Summary: Everyone has an animal inside of them, In some it's just a bit louder than in others. On the night of a particularly painful beating, the animal inside one Naruto Uzumaki awakens. Merging with the true Naruto, they become the ultimate predator. This new Naruto has only one goal in mind, to achieve Perfection. Rated M for Gore, Language, and perhaps some other things later on.
1. Prey

Hello everyone who may or may not be reading this (I don't discriminate against blind people), I am Musamura. I have been reading fanfiction for a few years now and have decided to try my hand at writing something. As this is my first story, if you notice anything wrong with the story or some hole I may have forgotten to patch up, I would greatly appreciate if you told me whether by PM or review. Any of those vile things known as "Flames" will be used to bake cyanide cookies, which will then be force fed to said flamers cat. (If the flamer does not have a cat, I will buy them one) Remember this is my first attempt at writing anything, so I'm not sure if I will be any good at it, but I might as well give it a shot. Now without further ado, I bring you "Perfection"!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything else I decide to put in this story; why else would I be writing this.

Chapter 1: Prey

It was a peaceful night in the city of Konohagakure. Many of the people of the village were asleep, while some of the more restless individuals spent their time in the bars of the city. The ninjas leapt from rooftop to rooftop, dutifully defending their beloved home. An outsider would think that the people of the village were all at peace with each other, helping and defending each other in their times of need. Most of the people of the village thought this as well, but one of the residents was left out of the thoughts of those people. That particular resident was currently running for his life from a group of these villagers. Each of the villagers was holding a weapon of some sort, be it a bottle, a pipe or simply a stick. Most in the crowd appeared to be drunk, but there were some that seemed fully aware and moved with more grace than a normal civilian should be able to.

'Just great' thought their quarry 'There are ninja in the crowd this time…' The person in possession of these thoughts was a small boy. The boy appeared to be around 6 or 7 years old. His hair was a golden color, but it was dulled by mud and what appeared to be blood. His clothing, which had been gotten for him by his grandfather figure, was little more than rags that barely held themselves together, with many holes and stains dotting whatever was left of it. He was barefoot, and held a small bag of what seemed to be food clenched in his left hand. What really set him apart from the other orphans and homeless children were his three whisker marks that showed themselves on his face. This child was Uzumaki Naruto, and he had been running from this crowd for around half an hour now.

'Why do they do this to me…' thought Naruto 'No, they have always done this, I mustn't think of why they do it, only of why I cannot escape it even after all this time.' As the child ran the further and further he got, the further his sanity seemed to be slipping away from him. 'Why am I not faster, why am I not stronger, why can I not escape this pain!' One of the villagers threw a bottle, which hit him in the back of the leg and shattered, but Naruto just kept running. 'I have trained myself to be faster, yet they are faster still, I train myself to be stronger yet they always best me in strength, I strive to be perfect, but this pain never stops!' At this point the boy turned down an alley, which turned out to be a dead end.

"We have you now you foul beast!" yelled one of the villagers, a man of around 40 with a burn scar across his forehead. Naruto began to panic, looking everywhere for somewhere he could run, something he could use, someone who could help him, anything to escape the pain! Do you wish to evade this pain, to never be harmed again and to show those who harmed you true fear?' A raspy, inhuman voice echoed in his mind 'Yes' thought Naruto, too far gone in his panic to question the voice 'Yes I would do anything for that, to no longer suffer through this pain!' Then give in to your instincts young one, let your body control you and kill them all, show them no mercy as they would not show it to you. Show them no fear for that will show them weakness. Show them no sympathy for their pain, for they would never do the same for you.

'But how, how do I show them!? How do I escape this pain!?' thought the boy to the voice 'I have tried fighting back before, but it never succeeds and they simply cause me more pain for my resistance!' All you must do is will for your instincts to take over you, I will do the rest 'Alright, but before you do this, just who exactly are you?' I am what was created in you due to the suffering these villagers cause you, the instincts you suppressed and the darker thoughts you hide. I am you, you are me, we are one and the same and yet completely different. Both of us are two halves of one whole, apart we are nothing, together we are Naruto 'Alright, do what you must, just whatever you do don't let us feel that pain again!' thought the human mind of Naruto. He then gave in to the tugging on his mind, and everything went dark.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM (This will be the line break until I find out how to make one)

"Ngh… What happened?" said Naruto as he awoke. Looking around his surroundings, Naruto saw that he was within what seemed to be a great forest, with trees that blocked out any light and the calls of strange creatures echoing throughout it. Even though it was probably very dark due to the lack of sunlight getting through the trees, Naruto noticed that he could see everything just fine. He felt a pull on his mind, as if something was calling towards what appeared to be the center of the forest. The more Naruto tried to ignore the pull, the stronger it became. Finally, after a few minutes of resisting it, he decided to give in to the pull, figuring that there was nothing for him to do here anyway except for to find the source of the pull.

After travelling through the seemingly endless forest for some time, Naruto came across a dark clearing. The canopy had grown so thick in this place of forest that the entire clearing would appear a pitch black to any outsider, however Naruto could see just fine. The clearing was mostly empty, with a few jagged outcroppings of rock scattered throughout it. At the center of the clearing Naruto saw a strange figure which, despite his ability to seemingly see through the dark of this strange forest, had shrouded features and could barely be made out. Seeing as the pull was leading him towards the strange figure, Naruto approached it. "W-Who a-are you?" Said Naruto to the figure "I am you, you are me, we are one and the same and yet completely different" Spoke the figure with the same voice that had spoken to him before he blacked out, confusing Naruto. "What do you mean, you're not me, I'm me!" "I am your inner self, your animal instincts and impulses that you feel you must hide to survive within that hellhole you call a home." The figure spoke as he stepped closer to Naruto, revealing himself to Naruto. Naruto took a step back in shock when he saw that the figure looked almost exactly like himself.

"What the, why do you look like me!?" Yelled Naruto in a fearful tone. "I told you, I am you, you are me, we are one and the same, so it should be expected that we look the same as well." Spoke the figure. "Wait a second" said Naruto "If you are my inner instincts like you say, then why haven't I ever heard your voice before?" "It is because you simply have never been in enough danger to require me to aid you, now that you have I have awakened." Spoke the figure in an explaining tone. "Oh yeah, the mob… What happened to them?" asked Naruto. "They are still there, almost exactly as they were before, the time travels slower in here." "Where are we anyway?"Asked Naruto "We are within our mind, more specifically in the mindscape, a place where the mind can manifest itself and explore its own inner workings."

"So, if the villagers are still outside, or in the real world I suppose, then how are we going to deal with them?" Naruto asked his inner instincts "The only way for us to survive this is for you and I to merge. It is only our combined abilities that will allow us to devour them, and anyone else who gets in our way." Spoke Instinct (Naruto's instincts will be called this from now on whenever the human part of Naruto, which I will be calling Reason, speak to each other) "Very well, it's not as if I have anything else to lose, how do we go about merging?" Asked Reason. "We are two parts of the same whole, we must simply will ourselves to merge together and it will happen." Said Instinct. "Very well, let's get this over with then." Both halves of the true Naruto then willed themselves to join together.

However, due to knowing more about the joining process and the ways of the mind from being contained within it, Instinct had a slight advantage over reason, and he used every bit of it he could. This caused Reason to fade away slightly, and increased Instinct's influence. Not enough to fully be in control, or even to survive the merge as Instinct had intended, but just enough to affect the combined mind. With more of Instinct in the formation, and less of Reason, The fragile process of creating a new consciousness from to others was disrupted, and led to the new consciousness to be more animalistic than human.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

When Naruto opened his eyes, he saw the mob that had been chasing him once again. 'These puny beings' thought the now twisted mind of Naruto 'They believe me to be weak, that they are superior to me. I will show them. This time I am the predator, and they are my prey.' At this thought a bloodthirsty smirk grew on Naruto's face. Then Naruto charged. In the eyes of the civilians he seemed to blur forward almost faster than they could see. Reaching the first villager, Naruto used his newly enlarged fangs to tear out a chunk of the man's arm. His teeth easily tore the flesh away as Naruto jumped away from the man, leaving him screaming and clutching his wounded and profusely bleeding arm. The torn away flesh gave a perfect view of the bone inside the arm, with rough tears at the edges of the wound rather than the normal smooth cuts of blades. Needless to say, it was a messy ordeal and sent many of the civilians running away screaming at the mere sight of it.

Naruto was paying attention to none of these things however. His mind was preoccupied by the piece of warm flesh caught within his teeth. 'Why am I not disgusted by what I just did? Why did I even think to do that? I normally would have fainted or something from the sight of doing something like this, much less actually doing it myself! But most importantly, why does it taste so good!?' The confused thoughts of Naruto rambled off, trying to make sense of his thoughts and desires. Taking advantage of the rational side's distraction, the instinctual side of the new Naruto swallowed the piece of the man's arm.

Suddenly, Naruto felt a rush of addictive power. 'What is this feeling, this power… did it come from eating that delicious piece of mea-I mean- that man's arm?' Thought Naruto. 'If it did, then I don't care about how wrong it should feel…' "I WANT MORE!" Screamed the now twisted voice of Naruto as he charged what remained of the civilians. What followed could only be described as a bloodbath. The only thing that the Hokage saw when he arrived was the mangled pieces of what used to be civilians, gallons of blood all over the ground and a small figure crouched over the body that had remained the most whole of the crowd, with his head, torso and a single leg being attached, the rest spattered across the clearing with the rest of the gore.

Then the smell hit them, and it took all of the resistance that the ANBU had to refrain from throwing up. The Hokage had been slightly better off, having experienced this sort of thing in the war. After getting over the sheer amount of gore and the stench, the Hokage and his ANBU focused onto the figure hunched over the body. With the new total silence the only thing that could be heard was a sickening squelching sound. The expression on the faces of all present turned from that of confusion to one of disgust as they realized just what the figure was doing. The hunched figure noticed none of this, instead choosing to focus on his latest meal, the small intestine of the scarred man that seemed to have been leading the mob. Getting over the momentary shock that came from the atrocity he was witnessing, the Hokage called out "Who are you, and why have you done this to these people?" The figure froze in its spot, then slowly began chuckling. After a few moments of the insane chuckling the figure slowly turned towards the gathered ninja. While doing this, the figure stated "Awww jiji-chan, I'm hurt, you don't recognize me?" Finally seeing the face of the figure, the Hokage reeled back in shock and confusion. "N-Naruto!? W-Why would you do this, why would you kill these innocent people!?"

"Why would I kill them? Well why wouldn't I kill them, they intended to kill me." Spoke Naruto in a low tone, laced with anger. "These people tried to beat me, cause me pain and end my life, so I decided to return the favor. It is only the fault of their weakness that I happened to be the one of the two parties which succeeded…" "A-Alright" spoke the Hokage shakily "But that doesn't explain why you would… why would you… EAT these people! That's cannibalism!" Naruto let a wide, blood filled grin lose at the Hokage "Why would I eat them? Well, for the same reason as any of you would eat your food. They are DELICIOUS!"

End of Chapter 1

So then, what do you all think? Rather dark, but that is just the kind of thing I lean towards writing. Make sure to leave a review and a favorite if you liked it, and the next chapter will most definitely be out soon. Also, if you can think of anything that I can improve on, please let me know about it as I will try to fix it. As I said this is my first time writing anything and I will need all the advice I can get. Well then, that will be the end of this before I start rambling off.

Until the next moonlit night.

Musamura


	2. Blending In

Why hello there my good friends, I am back! I haven't checked with other stories, so I have no idea if the number of people who read this and the number who favorited/followed this story is high, low or normal, but it made me feel great that people enjoyed what I wrote. So I decided to get this new chapter out for all those who liked what they read. I have read the reviews I have received and have taken the advice I got into account. I apologize for how long this chapter took to get out, but I had to take the ACT and studying for that had taken up a lot of my time. Without further ado, here is another chapter of "Perfection".

Chapter 2: Blending in

Naruto awoke inside of a room with stark white walls and the soft sound of beeping filled his ears. Realizing that he was in the hospital, he tried to get up but found that he couldn't because his wrists, ankles and chest were all strapped down to the bed.

'What the… Why am I tied to the bed…?' A look of remembrance then crossed his face, before quickly changing to one of joy and… satisfaction. 'Those villagers, they got what they deserved. They were filthy scum, weak and defenseless prey that needed to be cleaned from this earth, although they tasted amazing…'

Chuckling darkly at his thought, Naruto turned his attention back to the room he was trapped in for the time being.

There was nothing very outstanding about the room that he had been placed in, thought he felt something off about the room, as if someone was watching him. Reaching out for the feeling, he looked towards the area where the feeling was most concentrated. All that appeared to be in that particular corner was a simple potted plant, but upon focusing on the area Naruto saw that the shadow of the plant was slightly distorted, as if it had been changed somehow. It was nearly unnoticeable to anyone not closely inspecting it from a foot away, and yet it stood out to him as clear as any other detail of the room.

'Now that I think of it' thought Naruto 'everything around me seems clearer than it was before…'

And it was true; everything was much more detailed to Naruto now. He could see the tiny cracks in the wall opposite him, hear the conversations of others clearly and the smell of disinfectant from the hospital was almost overwhelming. Underneath that smell, he could barely detect the smell of the thing he sensed watching him earlier. What or whomever it was smelled of metal, blood and a bit of dog.

"Who are you?" Naruto called out to his watcher, staring at the plant. After a moment of silence, the plant started to become distorted and seemed to give way to a man. The man was an ANBU, wearing the standard ANBU equipment with an Inu mask.

"That's interesting… How did you sense me?" Asked Inu

"I felt someone watching me, and I noticed a distortion in the plant's shadow." Naruto said, deciding that if the man hadn't attacked him in his sleep then he was unlikely to attack him now. Though that is not to say that Naruto didn't feel the urge to attack the man, something about him made him seem as though he would be delicious.

Ignoring his urges for now, Naruto tried to move his hands again. With the straps still tight, Naruto again turned to the ANBU, asking "Inu-san, why am I tied down?"

"You should know why, Naruto, especially after what you did to all of those villagers yesterday. We didn't know if you would attack the hospital staff if you woke up…"

Naruto frowned, and then had a thought "Inu-san, why do you seem so calm about what I did yesterday? It's as if you are used to this or something."

Inu gained what seemed to be a hardened feeling about him, but as his face could not be seen it was hard to tell, and said in an explaining, yet somewhat disgusted tone "This sort of thing isn't as rare in the world as you would think, we simply keep the information suppressed to avoid anyone getting… curious…"

At this the Hokage entered the room, seeing the boy and his ANBU staring at one another, the tension growing with each second. Coughing to get their attention, the Hokage turned to Inu "You are dismissed Inu, although I would like to speak to you about the events that happened here after I am finished…" Inu, bowing to the Hokage, vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving merely a few leaves in his place. "Now that we are alone, we have much to speak about Naruto." Spoke the Hokage, sitting on a chair next to Naruto's bed.

"What do you want to talk about, _Jiji-chan_?" Naruto said, jokingly using his nickname for the Hokage as he shifted to better look towards him.

"Well," said the Hokage "how about we start with why you killed and ate all of those villagers last night." The older man spoke, giving Naruto a concerned gaze.

Naruto growled at this question, and yelled "WHY WOULD I DO THAT YOU SAY! WELL MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE THEY WERE TRYING TO KILL ME!" Naruto glared at the Hokage with his fists clenched and trembling.

The Hokage looked a bit shocked at this. He knew that the villagers were mean towards Naruto, and that some beatings had occurred on his last birthday when he was caught up in a meeting with a Suna delegate to discuss a renewed peace treaty, but he never thought the civilians would go so far as to try to kill the boy. "I… I guess that explains killing them, but why would you go so far as to eat them?"

Naruto gained a cruel smile "Why did I eat them? Well, it was because I was hungry." While saying this, Naruto gained a glint in his eye. Sarutobi recognized this glint as one seen in the eyes of those that had gone insane, or were at least close to it.

The Hokage only looked somewhat surprised, expecting this answer due to what Naruto had said to him yesterday before he had passed out, but nevertheless still somewhat disturbed by those words being spoken in the voice of a seemingly "innocent" child. "Well Naruto, while I don't approve of what you did to their bodies, I can see that killing them was an act of self defense, and since cannibalism is technically not illegal, you will not be punished for your actions."

Cannibalism, though highly frowned upon in most places, was not illegal in any of the elemental nations other than Kusagakure, due to the numerous tribes of people that practiced it living scattered around the nations.

While the Hokage was somewhat disturbed that his surrogate grandson had taken up that particular eating habit and showed no intention of stopping, he would respect the child's wishes, if only to attempt to make up for the suffering that Naruto had experienced earlier in his life due to his foolish trust in the people of the village.

"Very well then Naruto," Spoke Sarutobi in a sorrowful tone "I will not stop you from pursuing this particular… Habit… but I must make it clear to you that you are not to attack any civilians in any situation other than self defense." The stern gaze that was held over him told Naruto everything he needed to know, if he were to ever attack a civilian of the village than the consequences would be dire.

"I understand jiji." Spoke Naruto quietly "I won't attack anyone in the village, but if I am attacked again like I was today I _will_ defend myself by whatever means I see fit…" Gazing into Naruto's determined eyes, Sarutobi could only pity those who were foolish enough to attack the boy.

Time Skip: Naruto Age 8

Naruto walked down the road in silence, head downward and walking towards the shinobi academy. A couple of months ago he had made clear to his grandfather his desire to become a shinobi. Sarutobi had allowed it, on the condition that he not kill or maim any of the students, no matter what they did to him. Naruto had of course agreed, the children at the academy wouldn't have enough meat on them to make a full meal out of, unlike his other meals. Bandits were rather weak and somewhat tasteless, but there were almost always a lot of them there to make up for it.

That was another development in these two years; Sarutobi had started allowing Naruto to take "missions" outside of the village to sate his… tastes. Nothing that he thought would be too difficult for the boy, mostly things like eradicating bandit camps that would have been given to a more experienced genin team or perhaps one or two chunin.

Very quickly after the events of two years ago, Sarutobi had realized that Naruto refused to eat anything but human flesh. When asked why, Naruto simply shrugged and said "Compared to it, all the other kinds of food taste bland and unsatisfying." whilst he munched on a finger that he had managed to save in his pocket.

In order to keep the boy fed, Sarutobi at first started giving him the bodies of criminals to eat. This worked for a while, until he realized just how much Naruto could eat. He eventually started running out of inmates to supply the boy with. (After all, not many would be crazy enough to commit much crime in the center of the most powerful shinobi village)

It was ironically Mizuki, a chunin that absolutely despised Naruto that gave him the solution to his problem. One day, while he was aiding in handing out missions, he commented "There seem to be a large amount of requests for killing off bandits lately, there seems to be no end to them." He said as he straightened his stack of papers

The Hokage overheard this and began thinking 'Yes, there really seems to be no way to get rid of them all, they just keep coming no matter how many we kill off… Wait a minute, this gives me an idea.' He took a deep smoke from his pipe and said "Thank you Mizuki, you have just given me an idea; it will take care of both this bandit problem and another problem of mine…"

Mizuki looked confused at this, asking "What is this problem I've somehow helped solve?" The old Hokage merely chuckled "Nothing that you need concern yourself with my boy, nothing you need concern yourself with…" The next day the mission center noticed a decrease in the amount of missions involving bandits decreased, but they all assumed it was just the bandits finally getting smart and leaving the area.

Walking in to his room in the academy, all the talking that had been going on quieted and all eyes turned to him, all of them staring somewhat confused at the new face in the class that had been going on for about a month now. 'Just as I thought, weak children, none of them are even worth the effort of eating, much less killing…' Thought Naruto as he gazed out over the classroom.

Only a few faces really caught his attention: A rather thick boy that might be worth eating simply because of his size, a skinny pineapple haired boy who was busy sleeping, a blond haired twig of a girl that looked like she really needed to eat more often, a boy who had a dog on his head 'He seems a bit hotheaded if the way he is looking at me gives anything away, I wonder if he'll taste spicy…'

The three others that got his attention were a boy wearing a large trench coat that covered almost all of him and had small circular sunglasses covering his eyes, a boy with black hair that looked like the rear end of a duck that seemed to have a bit larger chakra capacity than the rest of the class, and a small white-eyed girl that seemed to try to hide herself in her overly large white coat when she saw him looking at her.

'All in all… only the big one and the one with the large chakra capacity are even worth being considered a snack.' Thought Naruto as he turned his attention to the apparent teacher of the class, a chunin with hair styled somewhat similar to the pineapple haired boy's and a large scar going horizontally across his face slightly below his eyes.

"Ah!" Spoke the teacher "You must be the new student, my name is Iruka and I will be teaching you for your time here at the academy. Now then, how about you introduce yourself to the class and then take that empty seat in the third row."

Turning towards the class, Naruto spoke "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I enjoy training, fighting and food. I dislike those who are weak and anyone who interrupts my meals. My hobbies are training, hunting and sparring. My dream is to be strong." Naruto then took a bow, and began walking towards his seat, when Iruka spoke up "Thank you very much Naruto, I hope you have a good time in this class. Now then, a few simple rules for the classroom are… Naruto, what are you eating?" Iruka said as he noticed an odd looking object sticking out of Naruto's mouth.

Naruto turned to face Iruka "Oh this?" he said, pointing to the object in his mouth. When Iruka nodded, Naruto pulled it out of his mouth and showed it to him "It's just a snack; fingers are always one of the best parts."(1) Iruka flinched back in horror, as while the Hokage had notified him of Naruto's… Eating habits… Iruka had not expected him to be munching on a finger shamelessly in front of the class. Looking around, Iruka noticed that all of the students were showing reactions of fear and disgust, even Shino, the ever stoic member of the Aburame clan, seemed to lean away from the boy and cover his eyes.

The first to regain the use of their voice was surprisingly not Iruka, but a pink haired student that, like the blonde one, was pretty much a twig. Looking at Naruto in horror, she screamed "HOW COULD YOU EAT THAT YOU MONSTER!" Naruto gazed at her, causing her to begin shivering in fear as his cold blue eyes seemed to stare into her soul. After a few moments of silence, the boy replied "I don't understand why you seem so disturbed, it really is tasty. Here, I brought a spare, try it! I promise you'll love it…" Said Naruto as he pulled another nearly identical finger out from his pocket and all but shoved it in the girl's face. With that, the girl finally gave in to her urges… and promptly fell flat on her face, out cold.

End Chapter 2

Well then my friends, I hope you have enjoyed this new chapter! Tell me what you think in the form of a PM or a review if you like. And without further ado I bid you all farewell.

Until the next moonlit night,

Musamura


	3. Adaptation

Hello once again to all those who read this story.I am going to take this time to respond to the reviews that I have received. Just to make it simple, these will be in order of when I got them. Guest: I thank you for the encouragement. Narutogod123: Thank you for your compliments and the advice, it was helpful and appreciated. Shadow Wolf Fang: Thank you, I hope you enjoy what more I write in the future as well. Guest #2: I am glad you enjoy my story. And you are somewhat correct; I did draw my inspiration from something similar to Cell. Naruto will not have a "Perfect" form, simply due to the fact that it would imply that there is a barrier or limit to the amount of power he can obtain. He does eat people for fun like Zetsu; however he also gains power from each victim in a way that will be explained in the story soon. He eats people because he wants to; the added power is just a bonus. Zero543: Indeed you do not good sir, indeed you do not.

It has recently come to my attention that I forgot to include a disclaimer. Well here you go: I do not own Naruto or any other content that I pull from other sources in this story, I only own my personal ideas and a mind twisted enough to write something like this. There, now you have a disclaimer, I will probably not remember to do one again so for any chapter in this story just refer to this disclaimer. Now that that is out of the way, let us begin the story!

Chapter 3: Adaptation

*sigh* 'I should have know that this would happen…' thought one Naruto Uzumaki as he sat in his seat in the back of the room. The seats surrounding his were all empty, in fact the entire back two rows were barren excluding Naruto himself and a silent boy with most of his body covered by his large clothing. 'All of these weaklings fear me because of my appetite.' Naruto thought dully as he looked over the students in the room. It had been a week since Naruto had entered the academy, and for the whole week no one had even attempted to go near him, most outright avoiding him. Even the teachers never called on him unless necessary and even then tried to make it as fast as possible.

'Honestly I think it may be for the best, I hold no interest in speaking with them anyway, but sitting here quietly all day is… boring…' thought Naruto as he silently wished for something, anything to happen to end his boredom. As if a Kami had heard his prayer, at that moment Naruto was approached by a boy his age. The boy his scraggly brown hair, he wore black pants and had a small dog's head popping out of the collar of the grey hoodie that he wore.

"H-Hey" spoke the boy, looking nervous but then seemed to steel his nerves. "I noticed you looking bored to death back here and was wondering if you could use someone to talk too, after all it is lunch time you're supposed to enjoy yourself." The boy said as he sat in the seat next to Naruto's own. "Are you not afraid of me? Do you not find yourself fearing me due to my… eating habits…?" Naruto spoke as he tilted his head slightly, not expecting any of the other students to approach him at all, especially not so soon after he had joined the class.

"Well, when I got home I asked my mother about that, she told me that you were probably someone like us, closer to your instincts than the rest. She told me not to judge you by what you ate and that there was probably a reason behind it, so since my mom's always right, I thought there was no real reason not to talk to you." The boy explained "By the way, my name's Kiba, nice to meet you I guess." The now identified Kiba said as he extended his hand to shake the blonde's.

Naruto stared at the hand for a bit, not expecting this turn of events. 'Might as well befriend him, it would do me good to have an escape from this boredom, and perhaps I may be able to get him to come over to my side of the food chain.' "Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto stated as he extended his hand to meet Kiba's and shook it. "Nice to meet you Naruto!" Kiba said and began grinning, while his puppy barked lightly.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot! Naruto, this is Akamaru, my ninken! Say hi Akamaru!" The small white dog yipped, jumping onto the table and licking Naruto's face. Naruto chuckled slightly as he pushed Akamaru lightly back from his face, saying "Well hello to you too Akamaru, you did a good job training your human." "Hey!" Kiba shouted, while Akamaru continued barking and Naruto let out a light smile. 'Yes, befriending Kiba is definitely a good idea.'

Naruto and Kiba talked about random subjects throughout the lunch time, ranging from discussion of Kiba's family to different ideas for jutsu and training that they had done recently. When they went back to class, Naruto and Shino were joined by Kiba in the back row of the room. After school got out, the both of them said their goodbyes and left for their respective homes. 'Well that was an unexpected development. A welcomed one, but unexpected all the same.' Naruto thought as he crossed the threshold of his apartment.

(Time skip- 1 year-Naruto Age 9)

A year had gone by without much incident for Naruto and his friend, the only real development during this time was that Naruto had taken the top spot of the class next to Sasuke and Kiba had become a close second in terms of taijutsu, but still had a problem with the academic aspects of the academy. Naruto's outfit had also changed slightly, he now wore lose black pants held up by a dark grey sash. His top was a dark green straight jacket with elongated sleeves, and wore dark green tabi on his feet. All of this was covered by a large dark green hooded cloak that covered almost every part of him from sight and shadowed his face, allowing only his mouth and whisker marks to show. All in all, Naruto looked rather intimidating for a nine year old.

On this particular day Naruto was sitting in his usual seat in the back of the class. Kiba was absent today due to having "clan issues" to take care of, and as such Naruto was rather bored without someone to speak with. 'It's times like this that I learn to truly appreciate Kiba's constant rambling, at least it gives me something to distract me.' Naruto thought as he stared out the window and wished that he was anywhere but here. Seeing that one of his students was not paying attention to his lesson, he decided to make an example of him.

"Naruto!" called out Iruka "Since you seem so uninterested with my teaching, perhaps you could explain to the class about how chakra binds with the body." Naruto turned his head toward Iruka and sighed at the smug expression on his face.

"Chakra is bound to the body in almost every piece of our anatomy. It binds to you more the more you train to use it, however the binding is concentrated in special parts of the body called 'tenketsu' where it is easiest to expel and manipulate chakra. There are 360 of these tenketsu scattered throughout your body, and they are all invisible to the human eye. These chakra points are the target of the Hyuuga clan's Jyuken taijutsu style, for which they utilize their Byakugan's ability to see chakra to locate the tenketsu of their enemies and then disrupt them with their own chakra." Naruto stated, seemingly uninterested with the amazed looks his classmates were giving him or the shocked look on Iruka's face.

"In addition to tenketsu, the chakra in your body is also bound to several more things in particular, the first being the Eight Chakra Gates. These gates are "limiters" so to speak on ones chakra to insure that you are not harmed by the intensity of your own energy. These Chakra Gates can be released with training, but each gate takes a large toll on your stamina. The more gates you open, the larger the toll on your body. Upon opening the eighth gate you will gain power equal if not greater than that of a kage for a few minutes, but you will die afterwards from the strain it puts on you." Naruto continued. Iruka looked somewhat taken-aback by the sheer depth of the description of chakra binding that Naruto apparently had memorized.

"Finally, ones chakra is largely bound to ones vital internal organs, especially the heart, lungs and brain. This is to insure that no matter how much chakra you use, you will not die of chakra exhaustion unless you use nearly every drip of chakra in your body. This also allows more skilled members of the Hyuuga clan to kill you with a mere tap on the chest, as they use their chakra to disrupt the chakra near your heart, causing an effect similar to cardiac arrest." Naruto finished as he kept staring out the window just as he had done when he had started his explanation.

Iruka stared at Naruto incredulously, along with many of the students. "Y-Yes, that is correct, though I must ask why you know so much about how chakra is bound to the body." Iruka said attempting and somewhat succeeding at regaining some of his composure. Naruto gave Iruka a bored look and said "The binding of chakra to the body is what makes humans taste so much better than any other form of food, I know these things because I was researching what parts would likely taste the best…" Naruto said casually, causing several students to openly give him disgusted and fearful looks, while Iruka merely flinched slightly.

"A-Alright, thank you for sharing Naruto. Now then, back to where we left off. The ways in which chakra is bound to the body were first discovered in" at this point Naruto once again tuned out Iruka's lecture, peering again out the window and waiting for the school day to end.

-After Class-

Naruto sighed happily as he left the academy building, glad that the seemingly endless day was over. As he was walking down the main road of Kohona he wondered what he was going to do for the rest of the day. 'Well, maybe I could try and see what Kiba is up to… no wait he said that he was doing something with his clan all day so I probably shouldn't bother him… Maybe I could go explore that strange forest I saw a while back… No I don't really want to get lost in a forest as large as that one. Hmmmm… what to do what to do…' Naruto thought as he wandered around. So caught up in his musings he was that he did not notice the presence of the girl in front of him until he ran face first in to her… rather impress assets.

Jerked out of his internal thoughts he fell to the ground and was about to speak but was cut off by the voice of the person he had just run into saying "Hey you damn gaki, watch where you're going!" The sheer loudness of the voice rang in Naruto's ears as he looked up at her. She seemed to be a girl in her earlier teenage years, perhaps 14-15 years old. She had black hair done up in a style somewhat reminiscent of a pineapple. She wore a large tan trench coat that went down just past her knees and an orange miniskirt with a fishnet suit that covered her body until slightly above her knees and just before her elbows.

"Well gaki, you gonna apologize or what?" Said the girl with an annoyed expression on her face. This snapped Naruto out of his temporary daze and he said "I'm sorry; I was thinking about something and wasn't paying attention to where I was walking." He said as he got up and dusted himself off "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, it's nice to meet you miss…" he trailed off "Anko, my name is Mitarashi Anko." She said slightly less annoyed now. Being feared and hated in the village due to her traitor of a sensei Orochimaru's betrayal she could sympathize with the boy which she now recognized as the one person in the village she viewed had it worse than her.

"So gaki, what is it that's got you thinking so hard you don't even know where you're walking?" She asked the boy, curious as to what had caused him to run in to her. "I was just trying to think of something to do today, I just got out of the academy and my friend Kiba is at some kind of clan thing and I don't know what to do." Said Naruto, slightly surprised that the woman didn't react to him with hatred or fear as the rest of the villagers did, although he hid it well.

'I might as well help him out, it's not like I have anything else to do today. Maybe if I help him I can find something to do for the day as well.' Thought Anko "Well gaki, what were you thinking of doing then?" she asked. Naruto, still surprised by her lack of aggression or fear to him, said "Well, I was thinking of going to explore this large forest I saw a while ago, but I don't want to get lost in it."

Anko had a thoughtful expression on her face, then appeared to gain a look of realization and said "Wait; was this big forest you saw surrounded by a large metal fence with a lot of 'Do not enter' signs on it?" Naruto was happy that she knew about where he wanted to go, giving her a small smile and saying "Yes, that's exactly it! Do you know about it? Could you take me there?" asked Naruto, gaining a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Gaki, the forest that you want to get into so bad is ninja training ground number 44, lovingly called the 'Forest of Death', it's filled with tons of dangerous animals that would eat kids like you for breakfast, are you sure you wanna go in there?" Anko said, thinking that her explanation might make the gaki not want to go. She was surprised when she heard him say "Yeah! Of course I still want to go there! I've killed plenty of bandits before so a bunch of animals will be easy to deal with!"

Anko looked at him in surprise, not expecting the young boy to say that. In disbelief she asked "Gaki, you're tellin me that you, a nine year old academy student, have killed people before?" She said, nearly laughing at the prospect. Naruto on the other hand became annoyed and said loudly "Of course I've killed people before, I've killed plenty, I mean how else am I going to get anything to eat?" The boy then crossed his arms and glared up at Anko. Anko merely stood there in a shocked silence…

And that my readers has been another chapter of 'Perfection', I hope you all enjoyed it! If Naruto's seemingly innocent and childish behavior in this chapter confuses you, l shall explain it simply. Naruto is a child. He may be an insane, cannibalistic and paranoid child, but he is a child none-the-less. He is only nine years old, and while he is vastly different from other children his age there are some things about him that remain the same, namely a child's natural curiosity, their desire for companionship and, of course, dislike of what seems to them a mundane prison of boredom and suffering in which its only purpose is to annoy and limit your time playing around and having fun, a.k.a school.

As for my plans for Anko, well as one who is influenced by his instinct as much as Naruto he must at some point feel the desire for a mate. *wink wink* Yes I do intend this story to be a Naru/Anko pairing, though it will not show greatly until later down the line. Willing to write about gore, cannibalism, beatings and hatred I might be, but writing about a 17-18 year old girl being in a relationship with a twelve year old is something I don't think I can pull off. (I don't know Anko's actual age in canon, and I don't really care. In this story she is about 5 years older than Naruto.) Also, I will not be making this into a harem fic, so please do not ask me to. Any suggestions for other girls that may be with Naruto instead of Anko are appreciated, but please send me reasoning behind it and not just your favorite pairing. I need the relationship to be realistic and plan on Naruto's lover and several others close to him to take up his eating habits and I just cannot see someone like shy little Hinata dining on the flesh of her enemies.

Any feedback that anyone has is appreciated, whether in the form of review or PM. I assure you I will read all reviews and messages and either respond to you directly or respond in the starting author's note of one of the following chapters like I have done in this one. Alas I have done enough rambling for one author's note, so I bid you all farewell.

Until the next moonlit night

Musamura


	4. Conversion

Hello my good friends, I am here to give you another chapter of Perfection. I am going to try and get this chapter out rather swiftly due to the extended time it took me to write the previous one (This was due to nothing more than my own laziness). Again if anyone has a response thoughts or a question I would love to see it as a review or a private message. Now then, let us being the tale of one Uzumaki Naruto.

Chapter 4: Conversion

*Time: About a year after the end of the last chapter*

'Hmm, this bunch seems rather unremarkable.' Thought one Uzumaki Naruto as he observed a bandit camp that had formed a couple of miles from Konoha and had been terrorizing a nearby farming village. 'Although the one with that axe seems to have more chakra than the others, not by much though, perhaps an ex-genin.' Naruto thought as he looked over the encampment.

Naruto's attire had changed since he met Anko nearly a year ago. He now wore a large dark green coat that concealed most movement and had sleeves that went past his hands, concealing his face leaving only his seemingly glowing eyes and his sharp-toothed smile visible. Had his hands been visible they would reveal sharpened black fingernails reminiscent of claws. He wore a pair of black baggy pants covering him similar to his previous ones; however these were slightly tighter and were designed to not produce sound during movement. He wore black open toed tabi that showed that his toes were clawed similarly to his hands.

The encampment itself didn't seem like anything spectacular, merely a grouping of tents in a forest clearing, a large fire in the middle and a crude wooden wall surrounding it. There were about 20 or so men wandering around the area, while another 10 sat around the campfire laughing and eating their stolen food. There was only one opening in the crude wall on the northern side, which was guarded by 2 men who seemed to be dead on their feet.

'So, about 40 men in all, assuming that some are inside the tents. Not the greatest haul but a good supply, they should last me for the next few weeks.' Naruto thought 'Although I am rather hungry, luckily I won't have a hard time deciding which one to eat.' As he thought this he gazed hungrily at the man with the axes and a larger chakra signature as he sat near the campfire and continued to get himself drunk, unaware of Naruto observing him and his allies from the treetops.

'Well, let's begin the show.' He thought with a twisted grin as he leapt silently from his perch in the trees into the camp, just behind the two guards. Oblivious to this, the guards continued their conversation "Hey Jiha." Said the guard to the left of the gate. "What is it Ushi?" said his partner to the right of the gate "Well, I was just gonna ask if you'd like to play a card game or something, I mean it's not like anyone ever comes to the gate anyway." At this Jiha sighed, saying "For the last time Ushi no we will not be playing cards, you know the boss will kill us if he finds out we were slacking off."

"Oh come on Jiha, he can't kill us if we don't get caught." Suddenly, Naruto spoke from the shadows of the wall "You needn't worry about your boss killing you." Both men spun around quickly and drew their weapons; Jiha was wielding a rusted sword while Ushi held what seemed to be a club with nails in it. "Who the hell are you!" Yelled Jiha "And more importantly, how the hell did you get in here!?"

Naruto was amused with the reactions of the guards, deciding to humor them somewhat he said "I got in here by sneaking through the trees, and as for who I am…" Naruto vanished in the eyes of the guards and appeared behind them "I am your executioner!" He yelled as he thrust both of his hands towards the guards' necks, cleaving easily through them with his sharpened black fingernails.

The two guards never stood a chance and were soon on the floor bleeding out. Naruto smirked as he activated the seal on his left wrist, a simple storage seal that he used to keep his meals relatively fresh. 'They still lose a little flavor but it was better than anything else.' Naruto thought as he sealed away his future meals.

'Now then, on to the main course.' Naruto thought as he grinned darkly at the prospect of the slaughter ahead. Naruto then began walking into the camp, planning to enjoy every minute of this.

*Half an hour later*

A figure was walking through the forest peacefully, paying little attention to what he/she was doing. The figure was deep in thought, pondering the words of its master. Its master had told it that in order to be a proper weapon that it must prove it was better than others, to show that you were not only stronger, but also smarter, quicker, and better in every way. 'But how would one go about proving that you are totally better than another?' the figure thought. 'Maybe I could prove I am better by never killing them, never truly fighting all out… No that would make me seem weak in front of master, and I can't afford that. But what else could there be?' the figure thought, but was interrupted from its thoughts by the sound of screams and the scent of blood. Curious, the figure hopped into the trees and set off towards the source of the sound.

A bleeding man ran through the forest clutching his limb right arm. He was breathing heavily and looking around whenever he could afford it as if he was running from someone. He was near hysterics as he ran in a random direction. In the trees, the figure was watching this man curiously, wondering just what he could be running from. The figure was rather slim and somewhat short, a girl of around eleven years old. She wore a dark green battle kimono and a Kiri hunter-ninja mask with two red lines on the lower half, one going from the bottom corner and swirling around where the mouth would be, and the other line going from the center of the bottom to the right of the first line. She was an orphan who had been found by a notorious missing-ninja named Zabuza. Her name was Haku.

'How interesting…' Thought the figure as it watched the man nearly run into a tree and try to stab it with a kunai in his fear. His kunai became lodged into the tree and the man began trying to pull it out. So distracted with his task was he that he didn't notice the cloaked figure come from the trees and begin walking up behind him. When he finally managed to pull the kunai out the figure was already only a few feet behind him. As if sensing something behind him, the man slowly turned around and screamed out in fear at the figure before him.

The figure chuckled and raised a clawed, blood-covered hand towards the man. "There's nowhere left to run my friend, I'm afraid you've reached a dead end." Said the cloaked figure, surprising the observing girl with its voice, which sounded like the voice of someone even younger than her. "N-no! G-get away from me y-you MONSTER!" Screamed the man as he swung his fist at the figure.

Catching the fist easily, the cloaked figure chuckled and caught the man's fist, brought it up to his face and sank his teeth into it. The man's screaming became even louder and he tried to pull his hand away. He succeeded, but not before the cloaked figure had removed his ring, pointer and middle fingers. Haku watched in interest and some disgust as the figure ate the man's fingers, blood coating his teeth and dripping down his chin.

The figure's face was now revealed, showing him to be a young boy that appeared to be ten years old. The boy had somewhat spiked blonde hair that ran down to his shoulders. His teeth were sharp and while clean would be nearly shining in their whiteness, but now were coated in blood. His eyes were a glacial blue with slits for pupils and his cheeks each had three jagged whisker-like scars running across them.

In the time Haku had taken to make these observations, Naruto had began and nearly finished devouring the man's body, making sure to keep him alive for as long as possible until he had eaten his heart. By now the boy was eating the last remaining parts of the man's organs. 'Well, he is a fast eater…' Haku thought morbidly.

"Ne, Mask-san, would you like some?" Naruto called out to Haku, who immediately snapped her attention to the boy upon realizing that he knew where she was. She cautiously hopped down from her perch on the tree branch and said "No, I do not want any of your… Meal…" cautiously staring at the boy, Haku then asked "Just why would you want to eat that man?"

Chuckling lightly, Naruto said "Well, it's obvious isn't it? I eat it because it tastes amazing, why else would you eat something?" Haku managed to appear unfazed by his words, saying "While that is a reason, there must be some other cause; otherwise you would be eating something else that is delicious like candy or something."

Naruto looked at her with a surprised look, not expecting anyone, much less someone he just met, to look past the reason he gave. "I must admit you surprise me, not many look past my first reason, they all just assume I'm insane. Well, I guess as a prize for managing to look past the first excuse I could tell you my original reason." Naruto gained a much more sinister look and the air began to feel like it weighed a ton. Haku could barely breath from the pressure as Naruto spoke "I eat them to prove that I am better than them, that they are below me and as such are nothing to me but meat." Naruto said as the pressure increased, causing Haku to begin feel as if her knees were about to give out below her.

"When I was younger, people treated me like nothing for no real reason, so now I treat them like they are below me, like the meat that they really are." Naruto said, then looked up at the sky. Haku instantly felt the pressure leave and released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. "Well, it seems I'd better be getting back, see you later Mask-san. Oh and by the way, my name is Naruto, what is yours?" Haku was slightly shocked by how fast Naruto's mood had changed, but managed to stutter out "H-Haku, my name is Haku."

"Well Haku-san, perhaps we will meet again someday." said Naruto as he began running off into the trees. "Yes, maybe…" said Haku as she watched him run away. 'Wait, didn't he say that feasting on other people is a way to prove you are better than them? Maybe if I do that then Zabuza-sama will think I'm strong…' Haku thought as she looked at the corpse of the man, now mostly a skeleton except for the left arm, which Naruto had left alone for some reason.

'I wonder how it tastes.' Thought Haku as she unconsciously walked towards the body.

'Naruto-san said that it tasted amazing…'

Haku was now standing over the corpse

'Maybe I could just try it.'

She began leaning over the body

'Nobody would ever know.'

She grasped the arm

'I have to try, for Zabuza-sama.'

She brought the arm up to her mouth

'I will not be a failure, I am better than them, and now I will prove it…'

She sunk her teeth into the arm.

*On the road towards Kohona

Naruto stopped in the middle of the road suddenly. He looked back in the direction from which he had come. 'Hmmm, it seems she has joined me on the top of the food chain.' Thought Naruto 'Now I really hope we will meet again.' Naruto smirked as he turned back towards Kohona 'Perhaps next time we meet we can seek our prey together, it might be fun to have a companion to hunt with.' Naruto then began walking towards Kohona again, a dark smile on his face.

And that is the end of this chapter of Perfection. I hope you enjoyed it! Yes, Haku is a girl in this fanfiction, I have my reasons. Also, regarding the eventual pairing in this story, I have decided upon a few people of which to choose from, and as of posting this will be creating a poll so that you can all vote for which one you wish to be with Naruto. You may also suggest new people, however there are a few requirements for the suggestion: 1. You must include a reason for them being with Naruto, and try to make it somewhat within the realm of their cannon personality. 2. They must be somewhere relatively close to Naruto's age (No pairing him with Tsunade or something like that) 3. No yaoi, I understand that others like it and respect their choices in literature, but I do not read it and I will most definitely not be writing it.

Please submit any ideas in the form of a PM or a review, I don't care which. Be sure to vote for whomever you wish to be with Naruto and watch out for the next chapter of Perfection.

Until the next moonlit night,

Musamura


End file.
